Meeting Minutes #249

Members Present:  Marybeth Gasman, Francois Berthiaume, Francis Ryan, Christine Morales, Robert Boikess, Crystal Akers, Tugrul Ozel, Karen Thompson, Jeff Zahn, Thomas Figueira, Martin Gliserman, Sanjib Bhuyan, Kenneth McKeever, Haym Benaroya, Benjamin Paul, Jack Bouchard, Gary Taghon, Ryan Womack, Sue Shapses, Laura Bowering Mullen, Gary Rendsburg, Juan Gonzalez, Louisa Schein, Lei Yu, Laura B Mullen, Anna Haley, Anne Gregory, Gajic, Barbara Faga, Mark Smart, Thomas Tsakalakos, Alexander Pichugin, Anne McPherson, Jeanine Oleson, Martha, Andrew, Ted H. Szatrowski

Non-Members Present: Denise Hien, Vice Provost for Research and Director of the Center of Alcohol & Substance Use Studies

Angela Oberg, Human Ecology and Robert Kopp, Earth & Planetary Sciences

1. Call to order

The meeting was called to order by Chair Marybeth Gasman on Friday, February 25, 2022, at 1:10 pm via Zoom.

2.  Approval of the Agenda

The Agenda was approved.

3.  Approval of the minutes of the meeting of January 28, 2022

The minutes were approved.

4. Chair's Report – Marybeth Gasman

   Chair Gasman welcomed everyone to the meeting and presented the following updates:

  • The NBFC draft of the report based on the recent survey of faculty of Rutgers New Brunswick is finished. The Executive Committee is currently finalizing it before sharing it with the rest of the committee.
  • Next month NBFC will have several guests coming to talk about student mental health issues on campus.
  • Chancellor-Provost Conway joined the recent Executive Committee meeting. 

Topics discussed during the meeting:

  • Work on the Academic Master Plan
  • Efforts to streamline processes on campus.
  • Greater faculty governance and the decision to establish an ad hoc committee related to greater faculty governance. That committee is putting together a proposal for how we, as various entities on the Rutgers University campus, could come together to have a much more enhanced faculty governance structure. Eventually there will be a vote on it.
  • David Wolcott, Vice President for Academic Administration and Chief of Staff has been invited to the next Executive Committee meeting to discuss issues related to making Rutgers a more equitable place for PTLs.

5. Administrative Report – Denise Hien, Vice Provost for Research and Director of the Center of Alcohol & Substance Use Studies

Vice Provost Denise Hien gave a presentation and updates on the following:

  • Role/purpose of Vice Provost for Research
  • Academic Master Plan – Research pillar and the three research priorities
  • COACHE research survey results
  • Role/purpose of Vice Provost for Research: The core purpose is to support faculty and students at Rutgers New Brunswick in advancing our preeminence in research through fostering innovations, interdisciplinary collaboration, and community-engaged scholarship.

The idea is interdisciplinarity, transparency, and inclusiveness. the vice provost for research should be a strategic partner with our faculty and help to advise and plan university-wide initiatives and priorities, help us with our centers and institutes in supporting New Brunswick and cross-collaboration and cross chancellor-led unit activities.

  • Academic Master Plan – Research pillar and the three research priorities

The current working version of the overall vision is to combine the research capacity of an R1 institution with a commitment to the public good coming from the status as a land-grant institution in one of the most diverse and densely populated areas in the country.

Bring the power of world-changing research to bear on the needs of the community and involve students at all levels from undergraduate to graduate to postdoctoral in that transformational research.

Three research priorities:

  1. Increasing the impact of our research to facilitate more interdisciplinary work and community-engaged scholarship as well as whatever terms publicly engaged scholarship, increasing equitable representation of all communities in the research process including diversity of faculty and access to infrastructure and resources.
  1. Increase representation of people from the arts, humanities, social sciences, as well as STEM. Support, promote, sustain, and grow the things that in relation to innovation and industry, but also appreciate the full range of kinds of research and the richness of our perspectives at Rutgers.
  2. Tighten the connection between research and education across all—from undergraduate to graduate to postdoctoral levels.

COACHE survey three areas of concern.

  1. Central administrative function issues

Organization seems to be led mostly by administrators, and faculty principal investigators did not feel that their needs were being centered in relation to the institutional needs, and so we're trying to at least realign, if not reverse, that relationship.

Concerns about the IRB and the need to make and streamline the IRB, the RAPSS system, submission of grants, etc.

  1. Beloved community in research

Exploring the need to bring a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens into all of our research activities from re-envisioning our physical, digital, social, and financial infrastructures

  1. RCM lack of clarity

Wanting more clarity/transparency about the financial mechanisms and in funding processes and guidance for the basic activities that when you're trying to run a grant through this institution, these difficulties that can come up around purchasing and having availability for discretionary funds and providing guidance around that.

Possible Solutions:

1.  In terms of the central administrative function, the Vice Provost for Research to work directly with the Office for Research to elevate faculty voices in all processes and procedures.

Additionally, been working with the Office for Research to create some guidance and transparency around dealing with facilities and administration and indirect cost recovery and cost-share guidance while trying to work across schools.

They are working on developing a dashboard.

2. Core facility would be an instrumentation in a physics context where there would be shared instrumentation that would be part of the core or an imaging center where you do human imaging, and you have that large equipment. For social sciences and arts and humanities core could be our libraries. Core could be a data science repository. Core could be a certain type of software that we might need to be able to do our research, so expanding out that kind of thinking about being more inclusive.

3. RCM clarity. We now have New Brunswick faculty representation on the Office for Research Budget Advisory Committee, so New Brunswick faculty will be able to be aware of what's happening with the budget and make comments and questions and increase transparency in general of what they're doing and how they're spending the budget.

Romayne Botti, Vice Chancellor for Finance, will provide guidance and feedback for people and try to fix these problems.

Following the presentation, discussion ensued on the following:

  • Removing RCM or having an RCM reset
  • Scheduling flexibility and utilizing advocate, Rebecca Cypess
  • Issue that some of the research facilities are in need of serious investment and repair; Lab freezers breaking down
  • Academic Master Plan priorities

6.  Special Guests: Climate Presentation – Angela Oberg, Human Ecology & Robert Kopp, Earth & Planetary Sciences

Speaking on behalf of the newly formed Office of Climate Action at Rutgers, created by President Holloway this past fall, to implement the Rutgers first Climate Action Plan.

Climate Presentation highlighted points:

  • The goal is eliminating our greenhouse gas emissions before the university's 275th anniversary in 2041. One of the tasks of the task force was to figure this out. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out what Rutgers' carbon footprint was.

In total, we emit about 470,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year. This roughly constitutes about one in every 200 tons of greenhouse gases emitted in New Jersey and using current government estimates of the social cost of carbon dioxide, that means we're causing about $25 million of damage to the global humanity every year.

  • The Climate Action Plan laid out a vision for the university, which will become a global leader in university climate action, and to do that, we will have to make our campuses more sustainable and more resilient.
  • The goal of the Climate Action Plan and the goal of our office is to see that this happens is to mobilize Rutgers as an academic entity, but also as an operational entity and an economic player to advance just and equitable climate solutions and help achieve national net-zero greenhouse gas emissions no later than the middle of the century.

Under that overarching goal, there are four headline goals.

  1. Rutgers should become carbon-neutral by 2040 and by carbon-negative, meaning we actually are taking in more carbon dioxide than we're putting out, by our 275th anniversary in 2041.
  2. We need to work across campus and with the communities to plan for just and equitable climate adaptation.
  3. We need to build a culture of sustainability that integrates climate action into academics, life, and policy across Rutgers' campuses.
  4. We need to build a globally leading model of how to create opportunities for climate action in our campus, local, and state communities.
  • The first part of recommendations here is to establish an office to advance university-wide climate action and to serve as a bridge between the academic side and institutional planning and operations so making sure that as we do these operational strategies, they're not happening invisibly to our students and faculty, but rather they are creating opportunities for research and teaching.
  • Second, recognizing that our small office of the president's office is not going to be able to do this all on our own. We need to create a system of distributed leadership, a system of distributed council for working groups, that enable staff and faculty, and students throughout the university to participate in seeing these climate solutions into implementation.
  • Third, we need to amplify, connect, and expand existing academic efforts related to climate change, particularly with the social equity and economic development lens.
  • Finally, encourage uses of the campus and the state living laboratories for climate-positive, equitable, sustainable, and resilient development.
  • Our office, which was mentioned was established in September, was set up to see this into action. We serve as the advocates for climate action and sustainability at the highest levels of the university leadership.
  • Our goal is really oversight and accountability. This really requires a whole of the university effort.

7. Committee Reports:

Student Affairs – Christine Morales, Chair

The committee discussed the following:

  • Meeting was centered around student voices, specifically around the SAS student panel event, Voices of Diversity.

student panel shared some of their concerns just in general with financial aid, with feeling connected to the community.

Their need for a cultural ambassador, somebody who can tell them about how to navigate large systems.

  • upcoming panel discussion held April 1st, comprised of students and their experiences in the LGBTQ community.
  • The impact of the hunger-free New Jersey College Student Conference

Athletic Affairs – Chair: Ken McKeever, Chair

  • Meeting attendance was small. More members are needed.
  • Big Ten Academic Alliance discussed.
  • Mentioned inviting the coordinator of the Big Ten Alliance to an EC meeting and a NBFC meeting to discuss program.

Faculty and Personnel Affairs – Francois Berthiaume, Chair

The committee discussed the following:

  • Free speech – follow-up to the Jonathan Zimmerman presentation; next steps.
  • Conference on free speech next year.
  • Would like to address free speech with the President and Chancellor-Provost to be in alignment/approach.
  • Developing free speech website (similar to Academic Integrity website).
  • Diversity and inclusion.
  • The report from the task force on non-tenure track directors.

 Academic Affairs – Bob Boikess, Chair

The committee discussed the following:

  • Focus on first-year honors programs.
  • Discussed Honors College and the number of students.
  • Teaching conference with a focus on the Academic Master Plan.

Budget, Planning, Infrastructure – Tom Figueira, Chair

  • The committee attendance was low at the meeting.
  • Discussion on graduate admissions, Canvas and marketplace.
  • Conveyed the disappointment in Salesforce.

8.        New Business

           No new business. 

9.        Old Business  

           No old business.

10.       Adjournment

            Chair Gasman adjourned the meeting.

Respectfully submitted:

Maria Crocco, Office of the Chancellor-Provost